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The Audi, driven by Frank Stippler, Rene Rast and Andrea Piccini, won the Spa 24 over the weekend. Photo by AUDI

Audi has great showing in Spa 24

July 28, 2012

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Audi completed a unique hat trick by adding a victory at the 24 Hours of Spa to its triumphs in the twice-around-the-clock endurance classics at Le Mans and the Nürburgring.

The Phoenix Audi R8 LMS ultra shared by Frank Stippler, Rene Rast and Andrea Piccini came out on top in a close confrontation with the sister WRT car driven by Stephane Ortelli, Christopher Haase and Christopher Mies. The two Audis were only briefly split by more than a lap until the final half hour of the race.

Ortelli was running a distant second as the race entered its final hour. The team made a last-minute decision to bring in the Monegasque during a safety-car period, a tactic that backfired when the car was held at the end of the pit lane and then awarded a stop-go penalty for an unsafe pit entry.

Rast, who was making his debut in the Spa 24 Hours, said, "It was the perfect weekend. We had good race pace, good pit stops and the team took all the right decisions."

BMW Z4s finished third and fourth, the solo Vita4One entry just ahead of the Marc VDS car.

The Vita4One BMW finished on the same lap as the WRT Audi in the hands of pole winner Frank Kechele, Mathias Lauda and Greg Franchi. They fell off the lead lap early on when Lauda pitted just before the rain arrived and were never quite able to get back on terms.

The best of the cars fielded by the Belgium Marc VDS car led much of the first half of the race and was at the head of the leader board at six hours when the first batch of points at this double-points round of this Blancpain Endurance Series round were issued. Maxime Martin, who shared the car with Bas Leinders and Markus Palttala, was consistently quickest in the wet conditions that made for a topsy-turvy first half of the event.

The BMW lost time on either side of half distance, first when Leinders was hit by a Ferrari and then when Palttala, who didn't drive in the first 12 hours, took a stop-go penalty awarded for exceeding track limits in free practice on Thursday.

Tom Kristensen, who was competing in the Spa 24 Hours for the first time since it became a sports-car event, ended up sixth in the Phoenix Audi that he shared with André Lotterer and Marcel Fässler. They lost time in the opening hour with a 25-minute stop to repair suspension damage caused then a McLaren MP4-12C cut across its nose entering the pit lane.